Ubisoft bringing Cranium board game to Wii

by Kyle Orland { Aug 24th 2007 at 12:26PM }

Between Wii Sports, Raving Rabbids and Wario Ware, the Wii is the perfect system for making a fool of yourself at parties. With challenges that involve impersonating celebrities, sculpting modeling clay and manipulating friends like puppets, Cranium is the perfect board game for making a fool of yourself at parties. Put them together and you have a perfect storm of embarrassment that will set your party ablaze with sudden attacks of modesty.

UbiSoft's Cranium Kabookii, revealed at this week's Leipzig Games Convention, will feature Wii-controlled twists on Cranium's usual mix of word puzzles, trivia, performance and artist challenges. Special decoder glasses will allow one player to see super-secret on-screen hints, and the game will come in custom international editions so the pop culture questions will be intelligible to players in France, Canada, Spain, the UK and the US. The game is due out in December.

Gallery: Cranium Kabookii

Tags: boardgame, cranium, party, puzzle

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

bender @ Aug 24th 2007 12:34PM

Fuck U-bisoft.

d-pad @ Aug 24th 2007 1:47PM

@Bender
"Fuck U-bisoft."

How about no?

Sure Ubisoft has published some shit, but so what? They're in the business to make money, and sometimes studios have to publish games that won't cater to your taste.

They've also developed some fucking incredible games.

Rainbow Six Vegas
Beyond Good and Evil
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
GRAW 2
Rayman
Sands of Time
Assassins Creed (looks good at least)

Just to name a few.

So in conclusion, don't blanket the entire studio in a negative light just because you didn't like Raving Rabbids or whatever the hell you're mad at.

Fatass of Kickassness @ Aug 24th 2007 3:12PM

You forget that they're the key offenders when it comes to porting/developing shit games to a budding system with no effort simply because its selling well. Sure, they're in it for the money, but that doesn't mean we should appreciate the shit they pump/port out for the Wii.

d-pad @ Aug 24th 2007 3:39PM

@fatass

You're absolutely right - and I believe they issued a quasi formal apology for it as well.

It just irks me when people like our friend bender post comments that blanket the good studios like the Montreal and Paris branch (Shanghai can burn to the ground for all I care).

bender @ Aug 24th 2007 4:01PM

@D-Pad,

I don't really hate Ubisoft. I know that they make great games, but their efforts on putting rewarding titles on the Wii have been, well, not so great.

It's is not just Ubisoft either, everyone else is trying to put mediocre party/board/mini-game type stuff on the Wii too. Ubisoft said that they had banked heavily on the Wii, and I really want to see some grade A titles coming from them. This just won't cut it for me. I'll give them another look if Red Steel 2 comes around, alright? Didn't mean to come off like an ass.

d-pad @ Aug 24th 2007 4:10PM

@bender

Ah, no worries mate.

plyx @ Aug 24th 2007 12:35PM

Sounds like the perfect fit for Wii lovers.

samfish @ Aug 24th 2007 12:38PM

Good. The Wii needs more games like this.

Especially since Big Brain Academy is like an insult to one's intelligence.

Neebs @ Aug 24th 2007 12:40PM

Trust Ubisoft to bring the shit.

WiNG @ Aug 24th 2007 12:42PM

HINT: wear your rose-tinted glasses when you play this so you can see the secret clues!

Word of the street. @ Aug 24th 2007 12:43PM

Except for the drawing and the super-glasses sounds like a crappy "You Don't know Jack".

Fernando Rocker @ Aug 24th 2007 12:43PM

If you check, the best Wii selling titles arent minigames.

Wii owners want more serious games. Just look RE4 Wii Edition. It its still selling a lot.

samfish @ Aug 24th 2007 12:48PM

That's because all the mini-games on the Wii fucking blow hard. Except Rayman.

The people who buy those kind of games and the more casual kind aren't stupid. They recognize a shitty game just as quickly as a "hardcore" gamer does.

Anam @ Aug 24th 2007 12:52PM

Good, it deserves it. That game was already awesome, but made so much better on the Wii.

I think the current problem is that many developers weren't originally planning on supporting the Wii (seriously, who knew it would do this well?) and now they're just starting to get on board, which means we won't see the good third-party support for a year or two, depending on the development time for individual games.

Almack64 @ Aug 24th 2007 1:06PM

I'm a big fan of board games being made into video games. I think the Wii could be the perfect platform for a bunch of games like this. Due to the turn based nature of most board games you wouldn't even need additional controllers.

Almack64 @ Aug 24th 2007 1:09PM

Also great "party" games do not need to be a set of minigames.

Ska Oreo @ Aug 24th 2007 1:08PM

I love Cranium!!!!

Shagittarius @ Aug 24th 2007 1:23PM

Cranium = Bored game.

Andy @ Aug 24th 2007 1:29PM

Carcassonne and Catan rock on XBLA because they have online mutliplayer.

Does this?

john @ Aug 24th 2007 2:07PM

Those are more serious board games that focus on strategy. Cranium is much more of a 'party' board game along the lines of Pictionary or Balderdash. I highly doubt it will have online play.

Patrick @ Aug 24th 2007 4:25PM

lest we forget uno? casual to the extreme

john @ Aug 24th 2007 2:11PM

Have any of you actually played this game? It's a pretty decent party board game. My sister loves it, and likes to bust it out at family gatherings. I think it could be a pretty fun party game, just as long as it doesn't cost more than $30 (the board game is $25).